Game of Thrones: Season 6 Episode 8 Review – No One

This week we were granted an episode of moments promised being finally delivered upon. Below you will find out spoiler-heavy review of last night’s episode.

The first of these delivered moments was at long last getting to witness The Mountain bring violence upon the Sparrows (even if it was only one single Sparrow) and it was a gratifying sight indeed. We’re pro Cersei choosing the violence option here and we hope to see a scene – before the season is out – where Gregor is onset by large numbers of Sparrows, yet he manages to cleave them down easily. Now that the line of no violence has been breached, who indeed knows how the High Sparrow will react.

The Siege of Riverrun came to its close this episode, in a manner satisfying, bar one key component. This was depriving The Blackfish of one of his best and most memorable moments in the books, which is escaping the siege by swimming down the Red Fork river. We didn’t like the show’s choice of having Brynden choose to die in battle (although, it should be noted that we never saw his body) and we feel that this is yet another instance of the show choosing to kill of an older character (Ser Barristan being the other), for little apparent reason other than to give them “a good death”.

Cersei walks with a resurrected Ser Gregor Glegane (The Mountain).

Other than this, the Siege played out well. Jaime threatened Edmure’s baby, which is true to the books and a crucial insight into the kind of man that Jaime still is (even if this was a bluff, he still said it). And having Bronn and Podric reunite and jest with one another was excellent.

Sandor Clegane returned to his old ways and sought to murder the Brotherhood Without Banners members who killed his “friend”. This was another huge wasted opportunity for the show, in the respect of the writers choosing not to bring Lady Stoneheart in within this episode, which would have been a perfect moment to do so. When we saw the men ready to be hanged (one of whom seemed to be Lemoncloak) we were sure that it was going to happen, but we came away disappointed again.

The show has made great steps this season to undo its previous wrongs of omission (the Greyjoys, the Siege of Riverrun, and so on), so why not go that one final step and bring Lady Stoneheart in? Really, it seemed the only logical reason to bring the Brotherhood in at this point, but so far, the show is avoiding this major plot point avidly.

This being said, we did love seeing Beric Dondarrion again, as well as The Hound’s interactions with him. Sandor is offered the chance to join the Brotherhood, which would be an interesting way to keep the Brotherhood closely tied into the show’s events, but we can’t see it happening, or happening for long, due to Clegane’s reluctance to side with any faction (even a faction without banners).

Beric Dondarrion, with Brotherhood men strung up ready to be hanged in the background.

For an episode titled ‘No One’, the Arya content only bookended the episode, culminating in quite a tense chase scene as Arya tried her best to outrun the Waif (Faye Marsay). It was certainly gratifying to see Arya get the best of the Waif, but given that Arya underwent training without her eyesight, it would be sensible to assume that the Waif underwent the same training, which begs the question of how Arya was able to beat her just by snuffing out a candle. Even in darkness, the Waif should still have been able to best Arya.

Which brought Arya to a final accomplishment of her goal; Jaqen H’Gar finally informs her that she has become “no one” and completed her training, yet Arya refuses this and reclaims her identity as Arya Stark instead. Jaqen even provides a smirk that shows that he is happy with this choice.

One final delivery came in the form of Daenerys flying back to Tyrion and her followers, just as war erupts. Dealing with this war feels to us like yet another blockade in the way of Daenerys ever reaching the West.

Although this was effectively another low-key episode, it was certainly one full of delivery. The Siege of Riverrun came to an end, as did Arya’s training and Daenerys’ absence from her people. This places Jaime in a position to return home to Cersei, and Arya and Daenarys in a position to finally move on Westeros (after the war as been dealt with). We hope that the final two episodes brings some grand moments.